A number of approaches exist for providing shopping functionality to viewers of media content events, such as television shows or movies. In some approaches, an available item appearing in a media content event is flagged or indicated as such, by way of a marker, message, tag, or the like. Then, the user enters a shopping mode or similar state, in order to select an item to purchase. In some approaches, items are selected by entering an item identifier (e.g., a tag number displayed on the screen) via a keyboard.
Such approaches have a number of drawbacks. First, indicating items as being for sale by way of markers or tags may disrupt the viewing experience by cluttering the screen or otherwise destroying the aesthetic experience presented by the media content event. Second, entering item identifiers such as tag numbers can be time consuming and error-prone or frustrating, particularly in the low-light environments often used for video viewing.